The campaign launched on the world’s biggest advertising stage: The Super Bowl. At the same time, banner ads drove people to the Assurance experience on HyundaiUSA.com. Starting the Monday after the Super Bowl, print ads promoted the program in national and regional newspapers while radio ads hit the airwaves.

Hyundai Assurance was wildly successful. As American car companies watched their sales plunge by almost 50%, and the Japanese brands saw U.S. sales declines in excess of 30%, Assurance helped Hyundai increase sales by 14% YOY, making it the only car brand in America growing in 2009. The campaign generated over 350 news stories leading to over 100 million PR impressions. Hyundai saw the most online traffic in its history. Across every metric, this was the most successful promotion in the company’s history. And, as another measure of its impact, the competition soon followed suit with their versions of Assurance. Perhaps most impressively, the campaign’s influence extended far beyond just the car business. Industries as varied as airlines, homebuilders, cruise lines and even NBA teams all created copycat programs. Hyundai Assurance has fundamentally changed the way companies are approaching marketing in 2009.